As a patriotic American, I understand that it's necessary for our safety to frisk any and all brown people who attempt to travel on airplanes. Even so, I think we can probably assume that it was unnecessary to frisk the former President of India. Twice.

It's especially unnecessary to do so after the former president is already on board the plane and sitting down:

The incident happened after Mr [Abdul] Kalam had taken his seat on board the Air India flight at JFK airport on 29 September.

Security staff forced the crew to open the plane door, and then took away Mr Kalam's jacket and boots because they had not done the necessary checks before boarding, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted sources as saying.

Kalam, as a foreign dignitary, is exempt from such a search, and the U.S. has apologized. But this is the second time he's been improperly frisked—in 2009, Continental Airlines was forced to apologize for frisking him before he boarded a flight. Maybe airports should put his picture up in the employee lounge?